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"Never under any condition should this nation look at an immigrant as primarily a labor unit. He should always be looked at primarily as a future citizen."-Theodore Roosevelt, 1917

"It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people."-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Isaona i tumungo’ ya ha sedi, ki ayo i mismo umisagui hao. Greater is the fault of he who allows the injustice upon himself. "-Chamorro proverb

"There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves." -Jose Rizal

"I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights." -Bishop Desmond Tutu

Disclaimer: This is not a legal blog. No opinion or statement should be perceived as legal advice. All posts are the opinion of the author or contributors who are expressing their First Amendment Rights.

Today's Saipan Tribune has an article about the Vicente Aldan gun-gate case. The violent criminal who put a gun to the head of his former common law wife and pulled the trigger several times was supposed to turn the gun over to authorities by November 3, 2009 as a condition of his plea agreement. To date he has not turned the gun in as was verified by Associate Judge Wiseman today.

Even though he apparently violated the plea agreement and is a violent criminal, he had been given regular weekend furloughs by his wife, Dolores Aldan who was the former Commissioner of the Department of Corrections and is now the governor's "special" political advisor.

It was reported that yesterday in Superior Court Aldan claimed that he did not know where the gun was. He suggested that two police officers may know where it is. From the Tribune:

Wiseman ordered the Office of the Attorney General to subpoena the officers to testify at the next hearing on May 12, 2010 at 10:30pm.

The judge directed assistant attorney general Elchonon Golob to oversee the prompt and effective dispatch of the subpoenas and have them served.

Joaquin Torres, counsel for Aldan, told Saipan Tribune that their position is that Aldan had already fulfilled his duties and obligations as required in the court-approved plea agreement.

In his previous order that granted Attorney General Edward T. Buckingham's motion to withdraw the motion to vacate the plea agreement in Aldan's case, Wiseman expressed that his main concern is taking Aldan's gun off the streets.

“The gun in question here is a potential danger to the community and it is the duty of this court to do whatever it can under the law to protect the public's rights in this regard,” said Wiseman.

Wiseman also granted Buckingham's motion to order Aldan to show cause why he should not be held in contempt for failing to turn over the gun.

In a previous post I cited a letter to the editor written by his former common law wife, Ms. Ellis Barcinas, It described how Vicente Aldan, DOC Commissioner Aldan, and two police officers violated a court order of no contact with the victim and went to Ms. Barcinas's house to retrive the gun. It appears from that letter that the two officers involved are officers Wally Villagomez and Eloy Fitial. From the letter (emphasis added):

The Tinian DPS allowed the defendant to trespass on my property without my consent and tricked my daughter into believing that they had authority to enter my property. (I filed a complaint regarding this matter with the Tinian DPS, Case No. 09-000448.) On Nov. 11, 2009, between 10:30am and 10:45am, the Tinian DPS (officers Wally Villagomez and Eloy Fitial) came to my house (the scene of the July 2, 2009, shooting incident). At that time, I was not at my house but my daughter Vionna Aldan was outside the house. The officers got out of the car and held a piece of paper to Vionna, telling her that they have court papers and that they are there so that the defendant could show the officers where the gun was hidden. My daughter, noticing that the paper was official looking, just believed the officers that it was a search warrant or something like that. Besides, they told her it was papers giving them the right to be there. Pretty soon, the defendant got out of a rental car that came with the officers in the DPS vehicle and walked over to the side of the house. The Department of Corrections Commissioner, Dolores San Nicolas Aldan, also came out of the rental car and accompanied the defendant, Vicente Aldan. What is noteworthy here is that the Commissioner is also recently married to Vicente Aldan, the defendant.

My third complaint: The Tinian DPS and Corrections abused their authority. The Tinian DPS, namely the officers in this incident, lied to Vionna that they had authority to be on my property. The paper they used to pretend they had authority was the judgment and commitment order issued by the court. In fact, I was never served a copy of the order and it was only after I had gone to the Tinian DPS to file a complaint about this trespass incident that I was given a copy of the order. The order specifically prohibits the defendant from having any direct or indirect contact with me, and to surrender the gun he used in the incident. Nowhere on the order does it give the Tinian DPS any authority to be on my property without a search warrant. In addition, why was the Commissioner involved in this case if she is the defendant's spouse? Doesn't that present a conflict of interest on her part to be involved in protecting her interests, i.e. the interest of her spouse? She should not be involved in this case in any form. What is also interesting is that the case went swiftly from incident to adjudication, indicating that there's a strong likelihood that she exerted some influence due to her official capacity to get the defendant out of jail (so they can marry), etc? Did she also have some involvement in making sure that I did not know about the case, not made aware of the proceedings so that I can be heard, because it may delay the adjudication of the case? To what extent was she involved in getting the Tinian DPS to do her bidding, whatever that may be in reference to this case.

It's amazing that this guy got such a lenient sentence and is furloughed on weekends. From KSPN News:

Today, Aldan was brought to tears on the stand when he explained where he thinks the gun is. He says he believes the two police officers that escorted him to Saipan may know its whereabouts. He said after being arrested, he overheard one officer ask the other if he has the gun. The officer responded by saying that he did have the gun and it was loaded. Aldan said it was at this point that he realized that the weapon was loaded and was faced with the horrible possibility of how his actions could have ended. After the hearing, the court found it necessary to subpoena the two police officers to testify. That hearing has been set for May 12th.

The police officers may have some knowledge of the whereabouts of the gun and will have to testify May 12, 2010. Certainly the governor's "special" political advisor, Dolores Aldan should know what happened to the gun. Both she and her criminal husband were involved in violating a court order by going to the victim's house to allegedly retrieve the gun. Law? What law? Court order? What court order? Plea agreement? Huh? What is with the selective law enforcement in the CNMI?